Movies - Thunderball

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	Movies - Thunderball

Thunderball is the ninth novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. It was created with the intention of being turned into a film, and is officially credited as being "based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming", a shared credit which has been the subject of much controversy. The novel was published in 1961 and stands, technically, as the first novelisation of a James Bond screenplay, even though at the time it was written and published, no such film had yet been produced. It was subsequently adapted as a daily comic strip beginning in 1961.

Thunderball has, to date, been adapted twice for the cinema. The first adaptation was released in 1965, with Sean Connery as James Bond. It was the fourth official Bond movie in EON Productions' series. McClory later produced an unofficial remake, 1983's Never Say Never Again
, which again starred Connery as Bond. Thunderball was originally scheduled to have been the first James Bond film, in 1962, but this was later changed to Dr. No
due to a lawsuit brought about by McClory.

The novel

The novel features the first and technically the last appearance of the criminal organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E. in its full form in Ian Fleming's novels. After Thunderball, S.P.E.C.T.R.E. attempts to re-form; however, it is prevented from doing so by 007. The book also features the first appearance of Bond's greatest enemy, S.P.E.C.T.R.E. leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld, although 007 does not actually meet the man in this book. This differs from the films, which introduced S.P.E.C.T.R.E. in Dr. No
and Blofeld in From Russia with Love
.

Thunderball is the first book in what is known as the Blofeld Trilogy, which, after the interlude novel The Spy Who Loved Me
, resumes with On Her Majesty's Secret Service
and concludes with You Only Live Twice
.

Plot summary

Thunderball begins with a meeting between M and Bond, during which 007 is informed that his latest physical assessment delivered terrible results, due to his drinking and smoking sixty cigarettes a day. M sends Bond on a vacation to a health farm in the country so that he can work off some of these bad habits. Upon his return, Bond is a new man, following a new diet and smoking considerably less. This "new" Bond is ready for action when MI6 receives a communiqué from an unknown terrorist organization, S.P.E.C.T.R.E. (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion).

S.P.E.C.T.R.E. has hijacked a new military aircraft, the Villiers Vindicator (a fictional V bomber), by paying the NATO observer on board to kill the pilots and redirect the plane to the Bahamas. Once there, Emilio Largo and the crew of the cruiser Disco Volante kill the NATO traitor and steal the two nuclear warheads aboard the jet. S.P.E.C.T.R.E. afterwards announces its existence to the world by threatening to destroy a major city unless a ransom of £100,000,000 is paid. This plan is dubbed "Plan Omega" by Blofeld and is overseen by Largo, who at this point has the S.P.E.C.T.R.E. designation "Number 1."

To the Americans and the British, the task of foiling S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and recovering the two warheads is dubbed "Operation Thunderball".

James Bond is sent to the Bahamas to investigate. Once there, he meets up with his friend Felix Leiter, who is once again working for the CIA as a result of the current crisis (in his previous appearance, Leiter had been working as a private detective after losing an arm and a leg while assisting Bond in Live and Let Die
). Bond also meets Dominetta "Domino" Vitali, Largo's mistress and the sister of the NATO observer who Largo had killed after successfully delivering the warheads to him. Once she learns of this, Domino turns against Largo and agrees to aid Bond.

After alerting the "Thunderball war room" of their suspicion of Largo, Bond and Leiter team up with the crew of the Manta, an American nuclear submarine, and pursue the hydrofoil Disco Volante, hoping to capture and seize the warheads while they are being transported to the first target. After an undersea battle between the crews of the Manta and the Disco Volante, Largo squares off in battle against Bond, but is shot in the back by Domino.

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Movies - Thunderball

The novel

Plot summary

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